WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness Bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.439 If you're joining this series for the first time, I'd 14 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.079 strongly encourage you to go back and start at the beginning. 15 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.640 This is the third installment of a ten part series 16 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.359 from a listener named Garrett, who's been sharing his experiences 17 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.040 from a decade of encounters on a remote forty seven 18 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:21.719 acre property in the southern Appalachians of western North Carolina. 19 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:25.040 In part one, Garrett told us how he came to 20 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:28.640 own the property a handbuilt cabin and acreage he purchased 21 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.400 from an elderly man named Earl. After the passing of 22 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:36.280 Earl's wife, Reba. That first summer in twenty fourteen, Garrett 23 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.120 began hearing deliberate wood knocks from the ridge line every 24 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:43.319 evening after sunset, he conducted a call and response experiment 25 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:47.319 that produced matching knock patterns from the ridge. He found 26 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:50.680 seventeen inch bipedal tracks pressed into clay along a game 27 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:54.079 trail after a rainstorm, and on the night of September 28 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:58.000 twenty seventh, he saw the thing responsible standing between two 29 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:01.359 white oaks at the edge of his meadow. In Part two, 30 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:04.400 Garrett described what happened after he planted a garden in 31 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:08.599 the spring of twenty fifteen. Something began harvesting his right 32 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:13.479 produce overnight with surgical precision, leaving no tracks, no damage, 33 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:18.759 and no waste. His countermeasures were systematically defeated. Motion lights 34 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:22.840 were avoided, a radio was physically switched off. A trail 35 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:26.080 camera captured a single infrared image of an enormous hair 36 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:30.960 covered hand. Examining the lens, Garrett eventually observed the visitor 37 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.319 directly from a workshop window, watching it move between the 38 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:38.520 rose and harvest tomatoes, corn, and beans with practiced efficiency. 39 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:41.960 The story ended with the creature approaching his cabin in 40 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:45.280 the middle of the night, breathing against the walls, tapping 41 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:48.879 the kitchen window, and scratching parallel lines into the logs 42 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.879 before retreating to the ridge. Garrett closed that account by 43 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.319 saying story three was the one he'd been dreading, not 44 00:02:56.439 --> 00:02:59.639 because it was the scariest, though it might be, but 45 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:03.840 because it involved his brother. Here's Garrett, I need to 46 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:05.639 tell you about my brother before I tell you what 47 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:09.000 happened in the woods, because the whole reason this encounter 48 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:11.479 shook me the way it did, the whole reason it's 49 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:12.599 taken me ten years. 50 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.520 To talk about it is because of who it. 51 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:19.520 Involved, not what it involved who. My brother's name is Wade. 52 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.400 He's six years older than me, which means by the 53 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:24.960 time I was old enough to really remember things, he 54 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:27.439 was already a teenager, pulling away from the family the 55 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:31.199 way teenagers do. We weren't estranged or anything like that. 56 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.479 He wasn't a bad kid, he was just older. And 57 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.680 the gap between a nine year old and a fifteen 58 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:41.479 year old is a canyon. Different schools, different friends, different worlds, 59 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.400 When my dad would take us on those fall cabin 60 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.319 trips in the Blue Ridge, Wade was usually the one 61 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:49.879 who didn't want to go. He'd rather stay home with 62 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.240 his buddies, or take a girl to the movies, or 63 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.960 work on the chevelle he was rebuilding in the garage. 64 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:58.919 So most of those trips it was the three of us, me, 65 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.439 Mom and Dad. I think my parents worried about Wade 66 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:06.719 and me growing apart. Mom used to make these transparent 67 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:09.719 attempts to get us to do things together. She'd ask 68 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.360 Wade to show your brother how to change the oil, 69 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:16.560 or take Garrett to the batting cages. Wade would roll 70 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.759 his eyes in that way teenagers do like. The request 71 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:23.439 was physically painful, but he'd always do it, and once 72 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.160 he got past the initial inconvenience of having his kid 73 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.800 brother tagging along, he was a good teacher, patient in 74 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:33.120 a way he never was about anything else in his life. 75 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:36.279 He'd explain things step by step and not get frustrated 76 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:39.279 when I didn't get it the first time. That patience 77 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:43.000 disappeared entirely when it came to his friends, his girlfriends, 78 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:47.240 his teachers, and eventually his drill instructors. But with me 79 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.600 he had a reserve of it that never seemed to 80 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:53.639 run dry. Dad noticed it too. He told me once 81 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:56.360 years later that watching Wade teach me how to throw 82 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:58.959 a curveball in the backyard was one of the proudest 83 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:02.160 moments of his life. Not because the curveball was any 84 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:06.000 good it wasn't, but because Wade had spent forty five 85 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:08.240 minutes in the July heat working with me on it, 86 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:12.839 adjusting my grip, correcting my wrist angle, never once raising 87 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:16.000 his voice or losing patience, and Dad realized that his 88 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:19.040 oldest son had a capacity for gentleness that the rest 89 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:22.160 of the world would probably never see. But every once 90 00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:24.560 in a while, Wade came along on the cabin trips, 91 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.360 and those are the trips I remember best. Wade is 92 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.800 one of those guys who's good at everything without appearing 93 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:33.800 to try. He could throw a football fifty yards in 94 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:37.199 a perfect spiral. He could fix a carburetor by ear. 95 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:40.040 He could walk into a room full of strangers and 96 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:43.240 have three new friends by the time he left. Growing 97 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:45.720 up in his shadow was both a gift and a curse. 98 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:49.639 Gift because he taught me things practical things like how 99 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:52.079 to use a level, how to sharpen a knife on 100 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:56.560 a stone, how to read a topographic map, curse, because 101 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:59.199 no matter what I did, he'd already done it better 102 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.480 and done it first first. But in the woods, none 103 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.279 of that mattered. In the woods, Wade and I were 104 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:07.720 just two brothers doing what brothers have always done in 105 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.199 the mountains, walking, exploring, getting into places we probably shouldn't 106 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.839 have been. He taught me how to track deer by 107 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:18.879 reading the ground, how to identify a tree by its 108 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:22.600 bark and not just its leaves, how to orient yourself 109 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:24.879 using the slope of the terrain when you couldn't see 110 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:25.319 the sun. 111 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:27.639 He'd been a boy scout. 112 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:30.879 Which I never was, and he carried that practical wilderness 113 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:36.040 knowledge the way some people carry a college degree, casually, confidently, 114 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:39.519 like it was just part of who he was. There 115 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.319 was one trip in particular that I've never forgotten. I 116 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:46.720 was maybe ten, which would have made Wade sixteen. Dad 117 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:48.959 had rented a cabin near Blowing Rock for a long 118 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.560 Columbus Day weekend, and for once Wade had come along 119 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:56.240 without protest. On the second morning, he and I hiked 120 00:06:56.279 --> 00:06:58.439 up a trail behind the cabin that climbed into a 121 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:03.720 stand of old growth hemlocksocks. The trees were enormous, cathedral sized, 122 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:07.399 the trunks were whiter than my armspan, and the canopy 123 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:10.839 was so dense overhead that the forest floor was nearly bare, 124 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.920 just brown needles and silence. We'd been walking for maybe 125 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:18.519 forty five minutes when Wade stopped and pointed up the 126 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:22.879 slope about one hundred yards above us. Wedged between two boulders, 127 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:26.600 there was a small waterfall I hadn't noticed, maybe six 128 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:29.879 feet tall. The water fell into a pool the size 129 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.519 of a bathtub, clear as glass, and the mist rising 130 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.439 off it caught the morning light in a way that 131 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:36.160 made it glow. 132 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.000 Wade said, let's check it out. 133 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:41.600 And we scrambled up the slope and spent the next 134 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:44.759 hour at that pool, tossing pebbles into the water and 135 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:48.439 watching crayfish dart between the rocks. He told me about 136 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.839 a girl named Sarah who he'd taken to homecoming the 137 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.759 week before. He told me he was thinking about joining 138 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:57.120 the Marines after graduation. He told me he was scared 139 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:00.000 of turning into dad, working a job he hated until 140 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.199 his body broke down. I didn't understand most of what 141 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:06.519 he was saying at the time I was ten, but 142 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:08.759 I understood that he was talking to me the way 143 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:12.839 he'd talked to an equal, and that felt enormous. On 144 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:14.959 the hike back down, he put his hand on my 145 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.600 shoulder and said, you're all right, Garrett. Don't let anybody 146 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.079 tell you different. I've carried that sentence my whole life. 147 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:24.439 It's the thing I hear in my head when nothing 148 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:29.000 else is working. Wade's voice, sixteen years old, still half 149 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:31.680 boy and half man, saying my name with a weight 150 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:34.480 that told me he meant it. And that's exactly why 151 00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:37.279 what happened on the mountain in October of twenty fifteen 152 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.480 nearly destroyed me. Wade did join the Marines. He did 153 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.480 two tours, came home and settled in Winston Salem, where 154 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:49.080 he married a woman named Colleen and got into commercial HVAC. 155 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:54.080 Not the same outfit as Cliff, different company, different territory. 156 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:58.080 Wade and Colleen have two kids, Owen and Maggie, and 157 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.519 they're good people, living good life lives. Wade and I 158 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:04.679 don't see each other as often as we should. He's busy, 159 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:08.240 I'm busy. We talk on the phone every couple weeks 160 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:11.480 and get together for holidays when we can. The bond 161 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:15.000 is still there. It just operates at a lower frequency now, 162 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:18.559 the way it does with siblings once everybody's grown and scattered. 163 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.000 Wade had visited the cabin twice since I'd bought it, 164 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.639 once in the summer of twenty fourteen, when he drove 165 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:27.919 down for a weekend to help me with the porch repair, 166 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:30.879 and once in the spring of fifteen when he brought 167 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:34.039 the kids up for an Easter visit. Neither time did 168 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:38.120 anything unusual happen. The knocking had been quiet during Wade's 169 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:41.200 summer visit, and by Easter. I hadn't yet planted the 170 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:44.720 garden that would change everything. So as far as Wade knew, 171 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:46.759 I was just a guy living on a mountain with 172 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.960 a dog and a nice view. I hadn't told him 173 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.120 about any of it. Not the knocking, not the tracks, 174 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:56.879 not the meadow siding, not the garden raids, not the 175 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:00.360 cabin visit. The only person who knew was Cliff, and 176 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:01.879 even Cliff didn't know all of it. 177 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:03.320 I kept Wade out. 178 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.120 Of it because I knew how he'd react. Wade is 179 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:10.399 a practical man, a marine, a mechanic at heart, even 180 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:13.200 if he manages a crew now. He deals in things 181 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.919 he can see, measure and fix. Telling him that something 182 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.720 seven feet tall was harvesting my tomatoes in the dark 183 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:22.919 would have gone one of two ways. Either he'd think 184 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:25.159 I was losing it, or he'd drive down with a 185 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:27.480 rifle and try to solve the problem the way he 186 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:31.399 solves every problem directly. And I didn't want either of 187 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:33.879 those outcomes. So when I tell you that I heard 188 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:37.240 Wade's voice in the woods that October afternoon, I need 189 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:40.039 you to understand the full weight of what that means. 190 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:43.000 It wasn't just a familiar sound. It was the most 191 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:46.120 familiar sound in my life. The voice that said my 192 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.120 name at the waterfall when I was ten, the voice 193 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.120 that called me all right when nobody else was saying it, 194 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:55.879 the voice I would have followed anywhere, and something on 195 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:59.720 that mountain knew it. The encounter happened on October eleventh, 196 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.279 twenty fifteen, a Saturday. I remember the date because I'd 197 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:07.120 taken the day off from a bathroom remodel in Hendersonville, 198 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:10.759 specifically to walk the back acreage and check the property boundaries. 199 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:13.840 I tried to walk the full perimeter at least twice 200 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.759 a year, once in the spring after snow melt, and 201 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:19.480 once in the fall after the leaves came down, to 202 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:23.799 check for downed trees, boundary encroachments, and general condition of 203 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.879 the land. It was also my way of maintaining a 204 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:29.919 connection to the parts of the property I didn't use daily. 205 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:34.399 The cabin, the meadow, the workshop, and the first hundred 206 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:37.399 yards of the slope behind the house were my regular territory, 207 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:40.480 but forty seven acres is a lot of ground, and 208 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:42.759 most of it was forest. I only visited a few 209 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:45.720 times a year. I should mention that this was about 210 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:49.120 six weeks after the garden incidents had ended. I'd pulled 211 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.879 the last of the crops in early September, ripped out 212 00:11:51.879 --> 00:11:54.519 the tomato cages and the bean steaks, and turned the 213 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:56.120 plot back over with a shovel. 214 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.759 I left the soil exposed. 215 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:02.159 Didn't replant anything, didn't cover it, just let the mountain 216 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.159 take it back. The creature hadn't come to the cabin 217 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:08.320 wall again after that mid August night. The knocking had 218 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:12.080 gone sporadic, the way it had the previous fall, appearing 219 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:15.200 maybe once or twice a week, with no discernible pattern. 220 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.279 In some ways, things felt like they dialed back to 221 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:24.399 the first summer's level of activity. Distant, observable, manageable. But 222 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.720 I'd be lying if I said I'd gotten comfortable. Comfortable 223 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:29.759 isn't a word that applies to your life when you 224 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:32.279 know something is in the trees above your house every night. 225 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:34.159 What I'd gotten was. 226 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.919 Accustomed, the way you get accustomed to living near a 227 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:41.440 railroad track. The trains are still loud, you just stopped flinching. 228 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:45.279 The morning was cool and bright, frost on the meadow 229 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.200 when I woke up, a thin white film that crunched 230 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.919 under Bowie's paws when he went out for his morning routine. 231 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.919 It burned off by nine, and the mountain emerged into 232 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.159 one of those autumn days that feel like a gift 233 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:00.759 you didn't earn. The sky was deep blue, not a 234 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:03.759 cloud in it, and the air had that october clarity 235 00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:06.679 that makes distant ridges look sharp enough to cut your eyes. 236 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:09.679 The hardwoods on the ridge had peaked about a week 237 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:13.279 earlier and were starting to shed. The oaks were rust 238 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:17.440 and copper, The hickoryes had gone gold. The maples along 239 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.320 Bishop Creek were deep crimson, almost purple, and the whole 240 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:23.639 mountain looked like it was on fire in slow motion. 241 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.679 It was the kind of October day that reminds you 242 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:29.000 why people drive hundreds of miles to see the blue 243 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:33.000 ridge in autumn. I ate breakfast, scrambled eggs and toast, 244 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:36.200 and coffee strong enough to stand a spoon in, and filled. 245 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:36.759 A water bottle. 246 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:39.679 I told Bowie we were going for a long walk, 247 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:43.120 which produced the usual explosion of tail wagging and spinning 248 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.879 that he did whenever the word walk entered any sentence, 249 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:49.919 even accidentally. I'd once said the phrase I need to 250 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:52.559 walk that lumber over to the truck, and he'd lost 251 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:55.679 his mind for ten minutes. The dog was a linguist 252 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.840 when it came to the vocabulary of outdoor adventure. I 253 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.799 clipped a leash to his collar, not because he needed it, 254 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:05.159 he was voice trained and reliable, but because I liked 255 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:08.120 having the option in case we ran into anything unexpected. 256 00:14:08.919 --> 00:14:11.200 I packed a small day pack with the water, a 257 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:15.480 granola bar, a compass, my phone, though cell reception on 258 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:18.679 the back acreage was essentially non existent, and a folding 259 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.639 knife not for protection. I'm not naive enough to think 260 00:14:22.679 --> 00:14:25.000 a three inch blade would help me against anything that 261 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.799 left seventeen inch tracks. The knife was for clearing brush 262 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:33.360 and cutting flagging tape. Practical mundane, the kind of gear 263 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:36.279 you carry when you're pretending everything about your life is normal. 264 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:40.000 We headed out around nine point thirty. The plan was 265 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:43.159 to walk the north boundary first, follow it east along 266 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.960 the ridge, drop down to the southeast corner near a 267 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:49.399 creek drainage, then loop back along the southern boundary, and 268 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:51.080 come up through the meadow to the cabin. 269 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:52.799 The whole circuit was. 270 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:55.600 About three and a half miles, give or take, and 271 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:57.840 usually took me two and a half to three hours, 272 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:01.039 depending on how much bushwhacking was involved. Stay tuned for 273 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:05.000 more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. 274 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:10.440 The first leg went fine. The north boundary followed the 275 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:14.000 ridge line marked with my orange flagging tape and at 276 00:15:14.039 --> 00:15:17.279 wider intervals with old blazes on trees that Earl had 277 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:21.279 cut decades ago. The blazes were faded but still visible 278 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.240 hatchet marks in the bark that had scabbed over with 279 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:26.080 gray scar tissue. 280 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:27.000 I checked each. 281 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:31.480 One as I passed, still there, still holding The forest 282 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:36.000 along the ridge was mostly open, mature hardwood with minimal underbrush, 283 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.279 and Bowie trotted ahead of me on the trail with 284 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:41.879 his nose working and his ears rotating like satellite dishes. 285 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:46.639 He was happy, relaxed, no tension in his body, no 286 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:49.799 hesitation at the tree line, which he'd begun crossing again 287 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.480 on these longer hikes, even though he still refused to 288 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:55.360 do it during his daily morning loop. I think the 289 00:15:55.399 --> 00:15:58.600 difference was me. When I was with him, he'd go anywhere. 290 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:02.080 When he was alone, he had his own rules. We 291 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:04.960 hit the northeast corner of the property around ten point fifteen. 292 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:08.799 From there, the boundary dropped steeply down a wooded ravine 293 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:12.080 into a drainage that fed into a tributary of Bishop Creek. 294 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:16.039 This was the wildest part of the property. The slope 295 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.240 was choked with rhododendron and mountain laurel, and the ground 296 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:23.000 was slick with leaf litter over exposed rock. I had 297 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.720 to use my hands in a couple spots, grabbing roots 298 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:29.559 and saplings to lower myself down. Bowie navigated it better 299 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:32.480 than I did, As dogs always do on steep ground. 300 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:35.559 He'd plant his back feet and slide on his haunches 301 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:38.399 for the steepest sections, then wait at the bottom and 302 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:40.720 look up at me with an expression that suggested I 303 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.799 was making this harder than it needed to be. At 304 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:45.840 the bottom of the ravine, there was a flat bench 305 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:48.720 of ground along the creek where the drainage opened up, 306 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:53.440 maybe half an acre of relatively level terrain, thickly canopied 307 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:56.000 with a carpet of moss on the rocks and fallen 308 00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:59.440 logs that gave the whole area a soft, padded quality. 309 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.559 Sound was different down there. The canopy and the terrain 310 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.359 walls created a natural amphitheater that muffled some sounds and 311 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:11.759 amplified others. The creek was loud, gurgling over a series 312 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.640 of small ledges, and its noise filled the air in 313 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:16.640 a way that made it hard to hear much else. 314 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:19.359 I stopped on the bench to drink some water and 315 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.599 give Bowie a break. He flopped onto a moss covered 316 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.720 log and panted happily. I stood there, looking up at 317 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.559 the canopy, at the way the sunlight filtered through the 318 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:31.640 remaining leaves and through shifting patterns on the forest floor. 319 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:36.240 It was beautiful, peaceful, the kind of spot that makes 320 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.119 you forget there's anything to worry about anywhere in the world. 321 00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:43.680 We'd been stopped for maybe five minutes when I heard it, Garrett, 322 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:48.839 my name spoken clearly in Wade's voice. I need to 323 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:50.839 try to explain what this was like, because I don't 324 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.880 think words do it justice, but I'm going to try anyway. 325 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.680 Imagine you're standing alone in a forest, miles from the 326 00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:00.319 nearest road, and you hear a voice you known your 327 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.319 entire life, not a voice that sounds kind of like 328 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:07.759 someone you know, the exact voice, every quality that makes 329 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:12.720 it unique, the pitch, the resonance, the way certain consonants land, 330 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.680 the way certain vowels stretch, all of it present and 331 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:21.160 accounted for. Your body responds before your brain does. Your 332 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:25.680 heart lifts, your shoulders relax. For one fraction of a second, 333 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:29.200 you feel relief because someone you love is nearby and 334 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:32.039 everything is going to be fine, and then your brain 335 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:32.720 catches up. 336 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:34.880 I froze. 337 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:37.200 My hand tightened on the water bottle so hard the 338 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:40.680 plastic crinkled. Bowie's head came up off the log, and 339 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:43.920 he oriented toward the sound, which had come from upslope 340 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:46.960 to the north, back the way we'd come, but offset 341 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.839 to the west, maybe eighty yards away, maybe one hundred. 342 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:53.440 It's hard to judge in a ravine because of the 343 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.759 way sound bounces off the terrain walls and the evergreen 344 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:01.279 thickets absorb and redirect it. I didn't move, I didn't breathe. 345 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:07.000 I just listened nothing. The creek, a crow somewhere above 346 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:10.440 the canopy, the faint rustle of dry leaves peeling off 347 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:14.599 branches in the breeze, but no voice. The forest closed 348 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:18.000 around the silence, like water filling a hole. My first 349 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.400 thought was that I'd imagined it. Your brain does that sometimes, 350 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:26.400 especially in natural environments with ambient noise. Running water, wind, 351 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:28.920 and bird song can combine in ways that trick the 352 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:33.000 auditory cortex into hearing patterns that aren't there. I'd read 353 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:37.359 about it. It's called auditory paradolia, the same phenomenon that 354 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:40.880 makes you see faces in rock formations. I told myself 355 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:44.839 that's what happened. My brain, tuned to familiar sounds the 356 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:47.720 way all brains are, had plucked Wade's voice out of 357 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:50.240 the white noise of the creek and the forest and 358 00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:53.480 presented it to me as real. Except Bowie had heard 359 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.240 it too. He was standing now off the log, weight 360 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:01.200 forward on his front legs ears locked on the upslope direction. 361 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.440 His nose was working fast pulling air in rapid bursts. 362 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:10.000 He wasn't growling, he wasn't barking, but his whole posture 363 00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:13.039 had shifted from relaxed dog on a walk to alert 364 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:17.519 animal processing a stimulus. Whatever he'd heard, it had engaged 365 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:20.400 his attention in a way that random forest noise wouldn't. 366 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:24.400 I called his name softly. He glanced at me and 367 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.559 then looked back up slope. I could see the calculation 368 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:32.599 happening behind his eyes. Go investigate, Stay with me. The 369 00:20:32.680 --> 00:20:35.599 leash hung loose between us. I gathered it up and 370 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:40.400 shortened the slack About thirty seconds past. I'd almost convinced 371 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:43.200 myself it was nothing, just a trick of the terrain 372 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.519 and the water noise and my own over stimulated brain. 373 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:51.519 Then it came again, Garrett, clear as a phone call. 374 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:57.240 Wade's voice, the exact cadence, the exact pitch, the exact 375 00:20:57.240 --> 00:20:59.279 way he says my name, with the emphasis on the 376 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.599 first syllable and a slight drop on the second, not 377 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:07.160 a yell, not a shout, conversational, the way he'd say 378 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.200 it if he was standing twenty feet away and wanted 379 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:10.000 to get my attention. 380 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:11.480 This time, I. 381 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:14.839 Could place the direction more precisely. It was coming from 382 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:18.079 the northwest up the slope, in an area of dense 383 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.440 rhododendron about seventy or eighty yards above me and to 384 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:25.480 the left, an area I'd just walked through twenty minutes earlier. 385 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:29.200 On my way down. My heart rate climbed. Not because 386 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:32.559 I was scared, not yet, but because the rational part 387 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:35.839 of my brain was running through possibilities and coming up empty. 388 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.839 Wade was in Winston Salem, two and a half hours away. 389 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:42.960 He wasn't on the property. He hadn't called to say 390 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:45.599 he was coming. There were no other cars at the 391 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:48.799 cabin when I'd left. And even if by some miracle 392 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:51.880 he'd driven down unannounced and hiked onto the property to 393 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.079 find me, he wouldn't know which direction I'd gone. He 394 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:57.640 wouldn't be standing in the middle of a rhododendron thicket 395 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:01.319 on a steep ravine wall, calling my name at conversational volume. 396 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:06.240 I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out Wade. 397 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:08.640 My voice sounded thin and small against the noise of 398 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.240 the creek and the immensity of the forest around me. 399 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:14.720 It died in the canopy above and left nothing behind. 400 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:19.319 Silence for about ten seconds, then from the same direction, 401 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:26.359